


Son of the Builder

by Diary



Category: Kings (TV 2009)
Genre: Awkwardness, Background Relationships, Bechdel Test Fail, Canon Character of Color, Changing Tenses, Cousins, Introspection, Late Night Conversations, Love, Minor Michelle Benjamin/David Shepherd, Morally Ambiguous Character, Mother-Son Relationship, POV Character of Color, POV Male Character, POV Seth Pardis, Past Jack Benjamin/Joseph Lasile - Freeform, Past Relationship(s), Post-Canon, Self-Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 08:42:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13210125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: Repost. For as long as Seth has known his cousin, Andrew has called Seth the rightful heir. Complete.





	Son of the Builder

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Kings.

“Why do you hate Shepherd so much?”

Seth has learned never to refer to the king as such in his cousin’s presence.

Andrew is contemplative for a long moment. “My father’s money created this kingdom. Jonathon was his nephew, and Michelle gave her right to the throne away. All the power, all the riches, all the titles, none of that belongs to David Shepherd. This kingdom isn’t his.”

This does make sense. However-

“I have no blood connection to your father.”

“You are the child of the man my father granted the kingdom to.” Rubbing his eyes, Andrew says, “When the time is come, Shepherd will be disposed of. I don’t care what happens to Cousin Michelle. And the kingdom will be given to its rightful heir.”

For as long as Seth has known his cousin, Andrew has called Seth the rightful heir.

His mother makes it clear she doesn’t want anything to happen to Silas’s daughter, his half-sister, but Andrew essentially ignores her, and Seth’s left to assure her he wants neither the throne or anything to happen to Michelle.  

Sometimes, he wonders why she allows them to spend time together, but despite feeling guilty for not asking, he can’t bear the thought of never seeing Andrew.

“But as Uncle William’s son, shouldn’t you inherit the kingdom he created?”

Andrew looks at him as if this is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard before finally answering, “No.”

...

Seth’s memory of David Shepherd is almost non-existent.

He sees him on TV all the time, listens to Andrew read articles about him, and he once did a report for a class project, but he doesn’t remember much about the man his father once brought to meet him.

Once, his mother thought he wasn’t around, and she had sharply asked, “Will you turn my son into a murderer?”

“No,” Andrew had answered. “When the time comes, I’ll be the one to kill Shepherd. What he chooses to do with his half-sister will be his choice alone.”

Sometimes, he wonders what his cousin really is: A victim reclaiming his status as a survivor, or a monster intent on destroying an innocent man.

Either way, Seth knows, if faced with the choice, he’d choose his cousin over the king.

...

Once, when he was still young and weak, his mother asked Andrew to take him to the city. She wanted him to go ice-skating, wander around other people besides those found in the hospital and school, and see sights other than the country. When he asked her why she didn’t come, too, she shook her head, and he’d watched in horror as tears formed in her eyes. “Memories,” she answered. “There are too many painful memories for me. I want you to make happy ones.”

Andrew had taken him ice-skating, bought him hot chocolate with marshmallows, and had even taken him to the movies.

Then, before the day ended, he’d carried Seth through a cemetery and set him down in front of a simple grave with no flowers.

It read, _Joseph Lasile_.

Doing the math in his head, Seth determined from the birth and death date the man died when he was between 25 and 26.

_Suicide_ , the cause of death read.

Leaning against Andrew’s legs, he asked, “Who was he?”

“A victim of Aunt Rose. She killed him.”

Staring back at the cause of death, he wondered if the man lying underneath had been important to Andrew. “Oh. Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

The man wasn’t, then, but Seth felt his stomach recoil at the thought the blood of his half-siblings and of Andrew had done such a thing. He could accept Andrew might kill one day, and maybe, he could accept she had, too, but only if he knew.

“Tell me,” he demanded.

Kneeling down, Andrew played with one of Seth’s curls. “He loved Prince Jack, and she was afraid he was going to get her son to do things she didn’t want him to do. You need to know what our family has done. Lasile shouldn’t have died, but he’s not the first or the last.”

Despite his confusion, he insisted they find some flowers to put on the ground.

The rest of the trip was pleasant, but some part of him continued to reflect over the dead man. What did he want Jonathon Benjamin to do that the queen objected to so strongly? Why didn’t she just throw him in prison or exile him? She’d exiled Andrew once, though, Seth still doesn’t understand why what Andrew did was so bad.

As he grew older, he began to wonder why he never heard a single mention of Lasile anywhere. He scoured through news reports, articles, and searched the internet high and low.

It seemed he and Andrew were the only ones who knew anything about the man, and he realized with a chill: Whoever he was, whatever he had done, Queen Rose had made him disappear almost without a single trace.  

...

“What happened to Prince Jack and his fiancée?”

Andrew lets out a strange sound.

“He’s dead. Lucinda Wolfsen has fled the country; she was never his intended.”

“He didn’t want to marry her?”

There’s some anger in Andrew’s tone when he answers, “No,” and he starts folding papers.

It’s a sign Seth has long recognized as his cousin taking great care in deciding whether he should hand out information or keep it to himself.

“Tell me,” he coaxes. “Tell me about the one who was supposed to inherit Uncle William’s kingdom.”

The words are cool and harsh: “Silas accused him of treason, and he tried to have his son raped.”

“Raped?”

Seth knows men can be raped, but for some reason, until now, he’d never thought a prince could.

“Silas locked Miss Wolfsen and his son together in a room. They weren’t to be freed until an heir was delivered.”

“Would he have really freed them if they’d done so?”

“I don’t know.”

“What happened?”

“Your half-brother is dead,” is the plain answer. “While they were removing his body, she managed to slip through. I know for a fact she made it out of Gilboa. Whether she still lives or not is unknown.”

_Suicide_ , flashes through Seth’s mind.

“Did he commit suicide?”

Andrew looks at him with curiosity. “Why do you ask questions you’ve already worked out the answers to?”

Feeling a shiver go through him, Seth ignores Andrew’s squirming and hugs him tightly.

If Silas and Rose could kill an innocent man and try to rape their child, what is Michelle Benjamin-Shepherd capable of?

She survived, after all. Out of all her family but Andrew, she’s still standing, and from what he knows of Andrew-

...

Prince Jonathon Benjamin’s death was ruled accidental.

When he was younger, Seth watched a recording of the funeral. It was dignified. A soldier’s funeral. A funeral fit for a fallen prince.

Michelle was stoic. Shepherd cried. A statement was released he had been cleared of all charges levied by King Silas.

Seth knows he’s buried in a cemetery for fallen soldiers with his grave constantly maintained.

...

“Why did Queen Rose suddenly switch to Michelle’s side?”

From everything he’s heard and learned, Queen Rose put everything into seeing her son take the throne.

“Cousin Michelle was pregnant. The doctors believed her to be sterile due to the sickness, but she proved them wrong. More than that, she provided an heir, a grandchild, that her brother hadn’t.”

Seth has been told he won’t ever have children, too. “And they covered up the pregnancy?”

“They tried to. In the end, it didn’t matter.”

Suddenly, Seth feels a shiver go through him.

Shepherd and Michelle have no children.

Andrew has been planning to place him on the throne for longer than he’s even known him, and Michelle’s child could’ve posed serious complications to this plan.

He starts to ask, but he’s already worked out the answer for himself: If his cousin can help it, no child of David Shepherd’s will ever be born.

...

When he’s fifteen, he comes home from school to find his mother sipping tea with palace guards.

Kissing him, she hands him a cup of hot chocolate. “Sit down, sweetie.”

“Ma’am, we have orders to-”

She wraps her arms around him, and he prays to God to keep her safe. “You have no right to talk to a minor without their guardian. We have nothing to hide, but I will not leave you alone with my son.”

“Mama?” The fear in his voice is real.

“Sit down, sweetheart. These officers just need to ask us a few questions.”

They ask their questions, all safe, non-leading questions, and they leave.

Later, he sneaks out and goes to Andrew’s. “They’re gone.” Sitting down, he takes his cousin’s cold coffee, and sipping it, he quietly says, “I understand now.”

Andrew looks up from the silverware he’s polishing. “Oh?”

“Not everything, obviously. But I realize now that my mother will never be safe as long as I’m alive. As king, I have a much better chance at protecting her.”

Looking genuinely pleased, Andrew nods. “It’ll take time. We must be patient. This won’t come to pass for years.”

“As long as you help me protect her,” Seth says.

He doesn’t know how he’s going to protect his cousin, especially since Andrew is a bigger threat than his mother will ever be to the crown, but he’ll try his best.

...

“What did you think of my father?”

It’s a dangerous question, Seth knows.

He’s asked his mother, and she always answers, “He lost his way, but because he gave me you, I’ll always love him. In my heart, I believe he’s in heaven.” She tells him stories of how they fell in love, of Silas’s joy at his birth, so great he cried, and reminds him of all the times he came to visit.

Seth remembers strong hands holding and rocking him. He remembers his daddy tucking him in, reading him stories, and blowing raspberries on his stomach. He remembers wishing his daddy was around all the time. He remembers when he was lying painfully in a hospital bed, and how he wished more than anything his daddy would come to him and Mommy. He remembers a sick man hugging him and telling him, “I am the King.”

He still deeply mourns this man, but he can’t reconcile the memories with the man who disowned one son, tried to have this son raped, and did who knew what else.

Seth never met Jack, but he had a brother. His brother is dead. He doesn’t care his brother liked other men, and he hates the fact an innocent man who might have genuinely loved his brother and made Jack happy, who might have been his brother-in-law, is dead.

Andrew is more of a brother to him than Jack ever had a chance to be, and his father allowed Rose Benjamin to do horrible things to Andrew. He went against Andrew’s father.  

Seth loves his father, mourns for his death, and would do almost anything to have him back, and yet, at the same time, he despises King Silas and is glad he’s dead.

“He was too religious for my taste,” Andrew answers.

Some part of him had expected an anticlimactic answer, but he still feels the relief that’s quickly followed by a spark of irritation.

“Tell me what bad things he did,” he demands.

Andrew cocks his head. “Monarchs have to do things commoners don’t understand. The word evil becomes meaningless. I don’t like what was done to Prince Jack, but your father was a good king. He served his people well, even when it meant doing things that others would condemn. But he lost his crown due to his stupid religious ideals, and now, that crown rests on Shepherd’s head. Silas didn’t want it there, my father didn’t want it there, and I don’t want it there.”

Seth wonders if William Cross wanted it on his son’s head.

He now understands what his cousin long ago grasped: Andrew Cross has strange physical tics, a bizarre aura to him, and no social skills. Quite frankly, he creeps people out.

Silas was commanding and full of humor. Jack was commanding and full of pain others wanted to soothe. David only occasionally comes across as commanding, but he has an aura surrounding him that makes people believe he’s full of goodness, and thus, deserves to be followed.

...

When he’s twenty-two, he knows the time is come.

“I love you.”

As always, Andrew looks uneasy at the words.

Seth simply hugs him, goes home, and later, slips out of bed to find his mother sitting tearfully in the kitchen.

“Isn’t this enough?”

“You know I don’t have dreams of kingship, Mama. I promise you, everything will be alright.”

Crying, she turns from him.

Leaning down, he kisses her. “I love you.”

Then, ignoring her loud sobs, he takes the bag he’s packed and leaves home.

It’s surprisingly easy to break into the castle, and when David Shepherd enters the king’s office, Seth inquires, “Do you remember me?”

Shepherd jumps, and recognition quickly fills his eyes.

Seth doesn’t feel any fear as he looks at the knife David Shepherd holds. “I don’t really remember you.”

“Hello, Seth,” is Shepherd’s soft response.

“I don’t know if God exists or not. But I know that William Cross’s money built this kingdom, and I know he didn’t want you to wear the crown that rules it. I don’t think he’d want me, either.”

Curiosity crosses Shepherd’s face.

“My cousin, Andrew Cross, doesn’t see people as human. But he also hates losing. He wants to put me on the throne.”

“And that’s why you’re here.”

“No,” Seth says. “I’m here, because, William Cross built this kingdom, and his son might be a sociopath, but he’ll die before he lets Gilboa fall. He’ll give whatever order he must in order to keep it standing. By right of blood and moral character, the crown you wear belongs to Andrew Cross. That’s why I’m here.”


End file.
